RELIGION

The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, adopted in
1980, proclaims that "citizens enjoy freedom of worship, and may
practice or not practice a religion" but that "no one may
misuse religions to violate state laws or policies." Despite the
Constitution's ostensible protection of the practice of the religion,
the status of such was precarious in Vietnam in late 1987.

Buddhism

Historically, most Vietnamese have identified themselves with
Buddhism, which originated in what is now southern Nepal around 530 B.C.
as an offshoot of Hinduism. Its founder was Gautama, a prince who
bridled at the formalism of Hinduism as it was being interpreted by the
priestly caste of Brahmans. Gautama spent years meditating and wandering
as an ascetic until he discovered the path of enlightenment to nirvana,
the world of endless serenity in which one is freed from the cycle of
birth, death, and rebirth. According to Buddhist thought, human
salvation lies in discovering the "four noble truths"--that
man is born to suffer in successive lives, that the cause of this
suffering is man's craving for earthly pleasures and possessions, that
the suffering ceases upon his deliverance from this craving, and that he
achieves this deliverance by following "the noble eightfold
path." The foundation of the Buddhist concept of morality and right
behavior, the eightfold path, consists of right views, or sincerity in
leading a religious life; right intention, or honesty in judgment; right
speech, or sincerity in speech; right conduct, or sincerity in work;
right livelihood, or sincerity in making a living; right effort, or
sincerity in aspiration; right mindfulness, or sincerity in memory; and
right concentration, or sincerity in meditation.

Buddhism spread first from China to Vietnam's Red River Delta region
in approximately the second century A.D., and then from India to the
southern Mekong Delta area at some time between the third and the sixth
centuries. The Chinese version, Mahayana Buddhism, became the faith of
most Vietnamese, whereas the Indian version, Theravada (or Hinayana)
Buddhism, was confined mostly to the southern delta region. The
doctrinal distinction between the two consists of their differing views
of Gautama Buddha: the Mahayana school teaches that Gautama was only one
of many "enlightened ones" manifesting the fundamental divine
power of the universe; the Theravada school teaches that Gautama was the
one-and-only enlightened one and the great teacher, but that he was not
divine. The Mahayana sect holds further that laypersons can attain
nirvana, whereas the Theravada school believes that only ordained monks
and nuns can do so.

Few Vietnamese outside the clergy, however, are acquainted with
Buddhism's elaborate cosmology. What appealed to them at the time it was
introduced was Mahayana ritual and imagery. Mahayana ceremony easily
conformed to indigenous Vietnamese beliefs, which combined folklore with
Confucian and Taoist teachings, and Mahayana's "enlightened
ones" were often venerated alongside various animist spirits.

Before the country was unified under communism, Buddhism enjoyed an
autonomy from the state that was increasingly threatened once the
communists gained power. For pragmatic reasons, however, the regime
initially avoided overt hostility toward Buddhism or any other organized
religion. Instead, it sought to separate real and potential
collaborators from opponents by co-optation and control. For example,
within months after winning the South, the communist regime set up a
front called the Patriotic Buddhist Liaison Committee. The committee's
purpose was to promote the idea that all patriotic Buddhists had a duty
to participate in building a new society liberated for the first time
from the shackles of feudal and neo-colonialist influences. The
committee also tried to show that most Buddhists, leaders and followers
alike, were indeed rallying behind the new regime and the liaison
committee. This strategy attempted to thwart the power of the
influential, independent groups of Buddhist clergy, particularly the
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, which had been a major pre-1975
critic of the Saigon government and of the roughly twenty Buddhist sects
in Vietnam the most vocal in opposing the war.

Communists also pressured monks and nuns to lead a secular life,
encouraging them to take part in productive agricultural labor or to
become actively involved in the work of the Patriotic Buddhist Liaison
Committee. For their refusal to collaborate, some prominent clerical
leaders in the South were placed under house arrest or imprisoned, their
pagodas were converted to public use, and their holdings were
confiscated. Such activity closely paralleled communist actions against
Buddhists in the North in the 1950s. In addition, the party prevented
Buddhist organizations from training monks and nuns in schools that
previously had been autonomous. In April 1980, a national committee of
Buddhist groups throughout the country was formed by the government. The
government-controlled Vietnam Buddhist Church was established in
November 1981, and it emerged as the only officially sanctioned
organization authorized to represent all Buddhist groups both at home
and abroad.

As a result of communist policy, the observance of Buddhist ritual
and practice was drastically reduced. A 1979 study of a Red River Delta
commune, reported to be "overwhelmingly Catholic," disclosed
that the commune's two pagodas were "maintained and frequented
regularly by the faithful (the majority of whom were old women),
especially on the Buddhist feast days." No monks or nuns had been
observed, however, and the study went on to note that pagodas had been
eliminated entirely in nearby Hanoi. In 1987 occasional reports
suggested that the observance of Buddhist ritual continued in some
remote areas.

The communist government's attitude toward Buddhism and other faiths
being practiced remained one of tolerance as long as the clergy and
faithful adhered strictly to official guidelines. These guidelines
inhibited the growth of religious institutions, however, by restricting
the number of institutions approved to train clergy and by preempting
the time of potential candidates among the youth whose daily routine
might require study, work, and participation in the activities of
communist youth organizations. In an apparent effort to train a new
generation of monks and nuns, the Vietnam Buddhist Church reportedly set
up one Buddhist academy in Hanoi in November 1981 and another in Ho Chi
Minh City in December 1984 . These academies, however, served as an arm
of the state.

Catholicism

Despite the Roman Catholic Church's rejection of ancestor worship, a
cornerstone of the Confucian cultural tradition, Roman Catholicism
established a solid position in Vietnamese society under French rule.
The French encouraged its propagation to balance Buddhism and to serve
as a vehicle for the further dissemination of Western culture. After the
mid-1950s, Catholicism declined in the North, where the communists
regarded it as a reactionary force opposed to national liberation and
social progress. In the South, by contrast, Catholicism expanded under
the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, who promoted it as an important bulwark
against North Vietnam. Under Diem, himself a devout Catholic, Roman
Catholics enjoyed an advantage over nonCatholics in commerce, the
professions, education, and the government. This caused growing Buddhist
discontent that contributed to the eventual collapse of the Diem regime
and the ultimate rise to power of the military. Roman Catholics in
reunified Vietnam numbered about 3.0 million in 1984, of whom nearly 1
million resided in the North and the remainder in the South.

In 1955 approximately 600,000 Catholics remained in the North after
an estimated 650,000 had fled to the South. That year the Liaison
Committee of Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics was set up in the
North by the communist regime in an attempt to win over those Catholics
who had chosen to remain (but were slower than non-Catholics to embrace
the regime) and to "reintegrate" them into northern society.
The church was allowed to retain its link with the Vatican, although all
foreign priests had either fled south or been expelled, and normal
church activities were permitted to continue, albeit in the shadow of a
campaign of harassment. The appearance of normalcy was misleading,
however. The church was stripped of its traditional autonomy in running
schools, hospitals, and orphanages. Its traditional right to own
property was abolished, and priests and nuns were required to devote
part of their time to productive labor in agriculture. Nevertheless,
officials claimed that Catholics had complete freedom of worship as long
as they did not question the principle of collective socialism, spurn
manual labor, or jeopardize the internal and external security of the
state.

In November 1977, the Vietnam Courier reported that the
church in the North had changed from "opposition to acceptance and
participation," but that the transformation had been difficult for
Catholics. In the same month, the government unveiled a decree on
religion that reaffirmed the constitution's position on religious
freedom, but made it unequivocally clear that such freedom was
conditional and depended on the compatibility of church activities with
such higher imperatives as patriotism and socialism. The new decree not
only prescribed the duties and obligations required of the clergy by the
state but also imposed state control over the conduct of religious
services, education, training, investitures, appointments, travels, and
transfers.

Applicable to all religious communities in the North and South, the
new law clearly introduced a period of more active state intervention in
church affairs. The regime apparently acted out of concern that the
church in the North, despite having coexisted with socialism for
twenty-three years, was not progressive enough to lead in the socialist
transformation of the Catholic community in the South. The Vietnam
Courier suggested this link between the northern and southern
situations in November 1977, after noting that the northern Catholic
church would have to shoulder the additional task of helping to
reintegrate Vietnam's entire Catholic population into the national
community.

Catholics in the South in 1975 officially numbered about 1.9 million,
including 15 bishops, 3,000 regular and diocesan priests, 1,200
brothers, and 6,000 nuns. Four-hundred priests and lay brothers and
56,000 lay Catholics were estimated already to have fled the country in
anticipation of the communist victory. At the time of the imposition of
communist rule, the South had 870 parishes in 15 dioceses; Ho Chi Minh
City alone had a half million Catholics, who were served by 600 priests
and 4,000 lay brothers and nuns. The North's less than 1 million
Catholics were served by about 3,500 churches attended by nearly 400
priests, 10 bishops, and 2 archbishops.

The government claimed that after April 1975 the religious activities
of Roman Catholics were quickly stabilized, major services were held,
and many cathedrals and churches that had been damaged or destroyed in
the war were rebuilt. The regime claimed further that there was no
religious persecution, or if there was persecution, that it was directed
at the activities of "reactionary forces" bent on taking
advantage of "the backwardness of a number of the faithful . . .
." Nevertheless, the authorities acted to isolate and to neutralize
hard-core opposition to party policy and to persuade less strongly
opposed factions to join a party-controlled "renovation and
reconciliation" movement. A considerable number of Northern and
Southern Roman Catholics, however, remained opposed to communist
authority.

In 1980 the Unified Bishops' Council of Vietnam was established to
enlist the aid of "patriotic" bishops in persuading
recalcitrant elements of the Catholic community to cooperate with the
regime. Three years later, in November 1983, a Committee for Solidarity
of Patriotic Catholics was created to unite all Catholics and channel
their energy into the building of socialism. This committee, which
replaced the Liaison Committee of Patriotic and Peace-Loving Catholics,
was formed at a time when the regime's surveillance of the Catholic
community had been stepped up, reportedly due to the suspicion that some
Catholics were involved in antistate activities. The regime's growing
concern was further reflected in the establishment in March 1985 of a
Religious Affairs Committee to coordinate and supervise religious
organizations more effectively. Hanoi's increasing involvement in church
affairs reportedly produced new strains in its relations with the
Vatican. In 1987 it nevertheless appeared critical to Vietnam's leaders
to convey to the public the impression that the Roman Catholic Church
was active in the affairs of the nation and that church members were
significant contributors to the socialist cause.

Other Faiths

Religions with less of a following than Buddhism or Catholicism were
treated similarly by the regime, with the exception of those the regime
considered merely superstitious, which incurred its outright hostility.
Two religious movements that enjoyed considerable followings before 1975
were the Cao Dai and the Hoa Hao. Both were founded in this century in
the Mekong River Delta. The Cao Dai, the older of the two and a
self-styled reformed Buddhist sect, flourished in the rural areas of the
southern delta region. An amalgam of different beliefs derived from
Confucianism, Taoism, and Christianity, among other sources, it claimed
1 million to 2 million adherents. The Hoa Hao, with more than 1 million
followers, identified itself as a reformed Theravada Buddhist sect, but,
unlike the Cao Dai, it preserved a distinctive Buddhist coloration.
Based mostly in the southernmost areas of the delta, it stressed
individual prayer, simplicity, and social justice over icon veneration
or elaborate ceremonies. Before 1975 both faiths sought, with some
success, to remain neutral in the war between Hanoi and Saigon. After
1975, however, like Buddhists and Roman Catholics, they were under heavy
pressure from the communist regime to join its ranks.

Protestants, numbered between 100,000 and 200,000 in the early 1980s,
and were found mostly among the Montagnard communities inhabiting the
South's central highlands. Because of their alleged close association
with American missionaries of the Christian and Missionary Alliance,
Protestants were reported to have suffered more than Catholics after
1975.

In addition to organized religions, there existed a melange of
beliefs without institutional structure that nevertheless had an
enduring impact on Vietnamese life well into the 1980s. These, beliefs
derived partly from Confucianism, stressed the virtues of filial piety,
loyalty, family solidarity, and ancestor veneration--all central to the
family system of the old society. Taoism, another important system of
belief introduced from China, emphasized the importance of an
individual's relationship to nature and to the universe. Beliefs rooted
in Taoism were condemned by the regime as superstitious.

Despite official disapproval of superstitious practices, most
Vietnamese, regardless of their professed religion, level of education,
or ideology, were influenced at one time or another by such practices as
astrology, geomancy and sorcery. Diviners and other specialists in the
occult remained in popular demand because they were believed to be able
to diagnose supernatural causes of illness, establish lucky dates for
personal undertakings, or predict the future. Moreover, many Vietnamese
believed that individual destiny was guided by astrological phenomena.
By consulting one's horoscope, one could make the most of auspicious
times and avoid disaster. It was not unusual, for example, for a couple
to consult an astrologer before marrying. He would determine if the
betrothed were suitably matched and even fix the date of the ceremony.

The belief in good and evil spirits, or animism, antedated all
organized faiths in Vietnam and permeated the society, especially in the
rural areas and in the highlands. These beliefs held that all phenomena
and forces in the universe were controlled by spirits and that the souls
of the dead were instrumental in determining an individual's fate. If
propitiated, they provided the living with protection; if ignored, they
induced misfortune. Although officially condemned as "superstitious
practices," these beliefs continued to proliferate in the rural and
in the highland areas as well as in the cities in the 1980s.